Advisory board

The Advisory Board is made up of experts on issues of pay inequality, corporate governance and business reform. They come from across all parties and none and represent a cross-section of interests – business, academia, civil society, the media, and trade unions. Individuals serve on the Advisory Board in an individual capacity and not as a representative from their place of employment.

The Advisory Board will offer advice and guidance to the High Pay Centre based on their individual expertise.

Baroness Ros Altmann is pensions minister in the current Conservative government. She is the former Director-General of the Saga Group. She is a pensions and economics policy expert and former investment banker, who has advised corporations, trustees and the pensions industry as well as previous governments. She has campaigned for workers who lost their pension savings when their companies went bust. Her advocacy led to the creation of the Pension Protection Fund.

Brian Bailey is the former director of pensions for the £8 billion West Midlands Metropolitan Authorities Pension Fund. Brian has also held a number of company non-executive directorships and was for many years an audit committee member of two US private equity funds. He previously held a non-executive directorship of PIRC Limited and currently is honorary treasurer for Local Authorities Pension fund Forum (LAPFF).

David Bolchover is a writer on management and the workplace. He is the author of three business books, the latest being Pay Check: Are Top Earners Really Worth It? (Coptic Publishing, 2010).

Jonathan Ford was appointed chief leader writer at the Financial Times in January 2010. He joined from Reuters where he was commentary editor and set up the company’s first team covering financial comment. Before that, he worked for eight years at the financial commentary service Breakingviews, of which he was a co-founder. Jonathan started his career in investment banking, working for Morgan Grenfell as a corporate financier.

Jane Fuller Jane Fuller is co-director of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation and director of Fuller Analysis, an independent consultancy. A former financial editor of the Financial Times, she is a fellow of CFA Society of the UK and adviser to, among others, Nutmeg, an online personal investment company, and the Paul Woolley Research Forum. She also trains financial journalists.

Baroness Ruth Lister is a Labour peer and is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughbrough University. She is a former Director of the Child Poverty Action Group and has served on various Commissions, including the Commission on Social Justice, the Fabian Commission on Life Chances and Child Poverty and the National Equality Panel. She is a Fellow of the British Academy. Her main research areas are citizenship, poverty and gender.

Caroline Lucas MP is the MP for Brighton Pavilion. She is the UK's first ever Green MP and former leader of the party. A passionate campaigner on the environment, social justice and human rights, Caroline was voted the UK's Most Ethical Politician in 2007, 2009 and 2010 by Observer readers, and is one of the Environment Agency's Top 100 Eco-Heroes.

Frances O'Grady is TUC General Secretary, the first woman ever to hold this post. She was previously deputy general secretary from 2003- 2013. She started her career in the Transport and General Workers' union. A committed campaigner for higher wages, she led the TUC's recent campaign: Britain needs a pay rise.

Guy Opperman MP is a Conservative Party politician, who was elected at the 2010 general election as the MP for the Hexham constituency. Guy has an honours degree in law from the University of Buckingham and a first class diploma from the University of Lille, France. He was formerly a barrister at 3PB. He is now a "door tenant" at 3PB and is no longer in active practice at the Bar.

Justine Roberts is the Founder and CEO of Mumsnet, an online community of parents sharing advice, support and product recommendations. Over the last ten years Mumsnet has grown into the UK’s leading social network for mums with 1.35 million monthly unique visitors. Before that she wrote about football and cricket for the Daily Telegraph and the Times and before that, she was an economist and strategist for SG Warburg.

Anita Skipper is a consultant to Aviva Investors. She was previously Corporate Governance Director at Aviva Investors. She led one of the first governance teams to be set up in the UK and since then has built Aviva Investor’s reputation as a leader in governance. She was on the Board of Governors of the ICGN for four years and stood down at the 2010 AGM. She is a member of the Association of British Insurers’ Investment Committee and Share Schemes Panel, a committee which provides guidance on good practice on remuneration for UK companies.

Robert Talbut is the former Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Association of British Insurers and the Chief Investment Officer at Royal London Asset Management. Prior to joining Royal London Asset Management in 2004 Robert was the Chief Investment Officer and Executive Director of the ISIS Group. Robert has been a member of the ABI Investment Committee for a number of years and was the Deputy Chairman before becoming Chairman in January 2012. He is also a member of the IOD, the Asset Management Committee of the Investment Management Association, and the Listing Authority Advisory Committee.

Michael Taylor was Director of Christian Aid for twelve years from 1985–97, and from 2001–04. Michael was President of the Jubilee 2000 Debt Campaign and chairs several NGOs. As Emeritus Professor in Social Theology, he is interested in using the insights of faith traditions (mainly Christianity) to inform social policy especially in the area of poverty reduction and human development.

Ruth Sunderland is the Associate City Editor of the Daily Mail. Previously she was Business Editor of The Observer, and Banking Editor of The Mail on Sunday. She has been described as ‘One of Britain’s leading financial commentators’.

Professor Stephen Wilks is Professor Emeritus at the University of Exeter where he served as Deputy Vice Chancellor from 1999 to 2003. He researches and writes on competition policy and the political power of the business corporation. He was a Member of the Economic and Social Research Council from 2001 to 2005; a Member of the Competition Commission from 2001 to 2009; and has been a Member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal since 2010.